Mary and the Witch's Flower - Film Review
Mary and the Witch's Flower is directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi and stars Ruby Barnhill, Kate Winslet, Jim Broadbent, and Louis Ashbourne Serkis and is based off the book The Little Broomstick by Mary Stewart.
Plot
So the plot is about a girl named Mary (Ruby Barnhill) who is led into the forest by a cat an discovers a mysterious blue flower called the Fly-By-Night. She crushes the flower in her hand and discovers a broomstick which leads her to Endor College where she meets Madame Mumblechook (Kate Winslet) and Doctor Dee (Jim Broadbent), who want the Fly-By-Night for themselves. Mary gives the address of a boy named Peter (Louis Ashbourne Serkis) who she later learns was kidnapped by Mumblechook and Dee and has to set everything right.
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| The poster I picked up. Sorry about poor quality |
I'm just going to say this right now, this movie is fantastic. It's amazing both in its story, and its animation. This was some of the most fun I've had in a theater in a while. I even picked up a free poster that my theater was giving out.
This is the third film by director Hiromasa Yonebayashi, who directed The Secret World of Areietty which I have seen, and When Marnie was There which I have not seen.
This is also the first film by Studio Ponoc, which will probably be the next Studio Ghibli since Studio Ghibli is pretty much over now after the release of When Marnie was There, and I am looking forward to see what this company does next.
This is probably the best anime film I've seen in theaters since Your Name back in 2017, it's the only anime film I've seen in theaters since Your Name, which reminds me, I've had a goal since 2014 to see at least one 2D animated film in theaters, and I reached that goal early in the year.
The thing about CG animation, I don't dislike it, there are some movies in that format that are good. But Western animation seems to have almost abandoned traditional animation in favor of CGI, but thankfully Japan still uses this method of animation, because the animation in this film is beautiful.
I was very invested in this movie. Ignore the mediocre reviews this is getting, this is a great movie.
Endor College is very similar to Hogwarts from the Harry Potter series, and I saw a kid in the movie trying to fly a broom who looked just like Harry Potter. Also, Endor College has nothing to do with Star Wars by the way. (shameless advertising in 5) Also you should check out my Star Wars reviews.
There were interviews with two of the filmmakers after the credits of this movie, talking about creating the worlds and characters, it's pretty interesting.
Let's talk about the cast. Now one thing I want to say is that I saw this movie dubbed, so I don't know how good the Japanese dub is.
Ruby Barnhill is good as Mary, a girl who finds the flower that makes her a witch for only one night only, steals a book of spells from the college, and is responsible for Peter being kidnapped by the people at this college and now she has to save him.
Kate Winslet and Jim Broadbent are really good as Madame Mumblechook and Doctor Dee respectively. They at first come off like as a normal teacher and scientist, but they want the Fly-By-Night for their own personal, evil use. They take animals and transform them into weird, abomination creatures and they want to transform a human.
Louis Ashbourne Serkis is good as Peter, he kind of bullies Mary (he calls her a red-headed monkey) but becomes her friend at the end. There isn't much to him.
Overall, Mary and the Witch's Flower is an amazing movie, it's the best anime film I've seen in theaters since Your Name (I don't think this movie is better than Your Name). It's one of the best theater experiences I've had in a while. This is definitely too good to be released in January and it's definitely better than Insidious: The Last Key.
Please buy this movie when it comes out on Blu-Ray. I want to support Studio Ponoc and see what they do next.
Also, I want to announce that the only movie I plan on seeing in theaters in February at the moment is Black Panther, and I'll probably be seeing that a few days after it comes out, and I don't want to leave you in the dark for almost a month (I'll be reviewing Captain America: Civil War before I see Black Panther) so I'll probably just review random things from my collection on random days until I review those two.
9/10
Previous review - Insidious: The Last Key
Next review - Groundhog Day
Hey! I am reading a lot about this movie now days. I think this is going to be a good addition to my watch list. Since it has already been a very long time, I want to add interesting movies and shows to my watch list. I have also planned to watch shows by Andy Yeatman with my kids.
ReplyDeleteIt's on Netflix, I think they'll like it.
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